Industrial grade power mowers of the foregoing type are well known and they maybe of the walk behind or ride on type. The cutting swath varies and those with a 52 inch and a 61 inch are quite common whereby the 52 inch is a walk behind and the 61 inch a ride on mower. The housing of these mowers have a discharge opening in a side of the housing that presently require an operator to physically relocate themselves to the discharge opening to change from one to the other of mulching and discharging the cuttings.
In these mowers the cuttings discharge opening is located forwardly, laterally and downwardly from where the operator is located during cutting. The distance from the operator will vary depending upon the size and/or type of mower. During cutting ground and/or cutting conditions can vary considerably making it desirable to switch from one to the other of mulching and discharging the cuttings and to do so during the mowing operation without having to stop.
There is also a safety issue in the cutting discharge mode in that stones and the like objects can be propelled through the discharge opening by the cutting element. The presents of others or in the case of being in close quarters to building structures it is desirable to cover the discharge opening to prevent harm.
It is known to have a remotely actuated operator controlled cover plate on mowers as exemplified by the teachings in the following United States Patents: U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,417 granted Oct. 27, 1998 to A. L. Evans entitled ‘Operator Controlled Deflector Plate for Discharge Chute of Riding Lawn Mower’; U.S. Pat. No. 5,331,794 granted Jul. 26, 1994 to L. Reichle entitled ‘Mower Sheild’; and U.S. Pat. 5,133,175 granted Jul. 28, 1992 to J. A. Dumbrell entitled ‘Safety Flap for Power-operated lawnmower’.
The latter patent discloses a mower with a cover plate over the mower cuttings discharge opening. The door is spring biased to a closed position and connected via a flexible cable to lever within reach of the operator seated on the mower.
The '417 patent discloses a single link mechanism for moving a discharge cover plate from one to the other of an operative and inoperative position. The single link mechanism is suitable for ride on mowers where the cutting deck is located below the operator in which case the cuttings discharge opening is in close vicinity to the operator seated on the mower.